


Illusions of grandeur

by Gyoro_and_Ururun



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-30
Updated: 2015-12-30
Packaged: 2018-05-10 12:51:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5586112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gyoro_and_Ururun/pseuds/Gyoro_and_Ururun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Loki is locked up in his cell for eternity, bored out of his mind, with only his illusions for company.</p><p>Darcy suddenly finds herself in Asgard, and of all places she could have landed...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Waste of life

**Author's Note:**

> This is my Secret Santa gift for jazzyofrph at tumblr for the Tasertot/Tasertricks Exchange! <3 I was worried that this would be too angsty, but since it has turned into a multichapter, it will most definitely not be too angsty. \o/ It's me, anyway, I never write unhappy endings, they'll be happy in time. :D 
> 
> I hope everyone enjoys this. <3

He had seen her three times in his life, though two of those moments had been but from a distance.

Loki had visited Midgard many years ago, after a particularly gruelling heartbreak and he had been sitting upon a park bench in distress. The sudden fancy of fleeing Asgard and hiding within the mortal realm had quite worn off; it did not matter where he was, he was miserable. Much like today, really.

But Darcy had come along, fresh out of secondary education if he was correct in guessing; a new adult, at the very least, and had subsequently cheered him up. They hadn’t spoken for long, but she had left a mark on him. He did not trust easily, he did not form bonds easily, but sometimes he formed quick attachments, even if they were one-sided. Most were.

The second time, he had just visited his brother and had decided to see where he had been staying. The dear girl had been there, a little older now, no less beautiful.

The third time…well, he had managed to harness the tesseract enough to send an invisible clone to her location, one that Thanos could not see or hear through. He had managed to protect few of his thoughts to the titan, Darcy had been one of them.

And now, here he was, sentenced to life in a cage. How he wished he could simply be dead instead. Loki had lost count of the amount of times he had destroyed the furniture and items his mother had procured for him and fixed them in turn. It had grown boring, so he had turned to illusions instead. Illusions of good times past, when he had simply been ignorant of the lies he had been told.

Illusions of false hope, of grandeur, of himself in Thor’s place. Wielding Mjölnir like he had the right to. For the people would never accept him as their King. Thor was loved; _he_ wanted to be loved. Maybe a small part of himself still did, but he would be lying to himself if he believed that he would ever be truly loved saved from by his mother.

The illusions went on, each one more deluded than the last. Each day ticked by until he lost track of time. His mother visited, but he found himself inconsolable. When she wasn’t there, he wanted company; when she was there, he wanted to be left alone. His life was a mess of contradiction, as it always had been.

One day he found himself conjuring illusions of Darcy Lewis; them simply talking, at first. Witty banter, intellectual conversations, compliments exchanged. He grew bold in time and created an illusion of them married, rarely apart from each other and he was _happy_. She was happy and loved him more than she loved anyone else, though he knew deep down that this wasn’t how love worked.

Loki also knew that a mortal such as herself could never love a monster like him. That was why he had his illusions; he could delude himself, indulge in wishful thinking. It was harmless, really; he couldn’t exactly see her in person. He was sat down on his chair, staring absently at the wall as he indulged in his little fantasy. The more he cast these illusions, the more he seemed to space out, become unaware of his surroundings. Part of it was because he was putting himself more and more into these things.

He knew the risks, he didn’t care.

Right now in his illusion, he simply sat there with his arm around Darcy, feeling the pseudo-calm wash over him. If he fell into illusions enough, they would feel more real. They could be his new reality. His illusion smiled, as his real self had a blank expression. He didn’t notice Thor come up to his cell. He didn’t notice him enter his cell nor did he notice Thor take stock of what he was seeing, get angry and storm towards him.

He _did_ notice when Thor grabbed him by the neck and pushed him harshly against the wall to the side of his bed. Loki’s eyes were sharp now, losing the glassy look, and he stared at Thor, wondering what he had done now to cause him anger. Not that he cared, really. It was the first time he had seen Thor since he was brought back to Asgard. He looked back over at the other side of his cell, but he had been pulled out of the illusion. He felt hollow at that; he wanted to return to that moment. It had been perfect.

“What do you think you are doing, Loki?!” Thor roared. “How do you know my friend, Darcy?”

Oh, so _that_ was why he was angry; Thor apparently did not realise that Loki had met her first.

“What of it? What does it _matter_?” Loki spat.

“You are creating illusions with her in them; do you not realise how ill that is?” Thor growled.

Loki glowered at him, though hurt lay in his expression too. Though realisation suddenly dawned on him.

“Do you not trust this cage to keep me trapped?”

“No, I do not. I have never seen you fail at removing yourself from a trap or the like,” Thor said. “I believe you are merely biding your time.”

“Where would I go? There are few places that would offer me comfort and no hatred, what is the point? Illusions are all I have left,” Loki said. He had not even tried to escape.

“You will leave Darcy out of your illusions and that is that,” Thor growled.

“Would you prefer I used Dr. Foster?” Loki asked.

Thor was clearly holding back the urge to punch him; honestly, why was he controlling himself so? Self-control hadn’t been one of his strong points, yet here he was…had their mother given him a warning of sorts?

“Why are you here?” Loki asked.

Thor let go of him and he felt himself slide down the wall, not caring to catch himself. Thor had walked away, his back turned away from him; he had never found it difficult to talk to Loki in the past, but times had changed. He was a monster now. Silence fell for a few minutes, minutes that felt longer.

“I came to see how you were, which now I am coming to regret,” Thor said. “I am not sure there is any hope for you anymore, brother. Even if it pains me to accept.”

“’Tis what happens when you love a monster,” Loki said quietly.

“I could say a thousand times that I do not love you anymore, but all would be lies,” Thor said tiredly. “You were once the better man, Loki; more thoughtful, logical...how far we have come.”

“You are wasting your breath; there is little point coming here. We cannot move forward,” Loki murmured softly.

Thor turned to him and gave him a hard stare. “Is that what you want? To push everyone away?” He asked.

He wanted to answer, but he also did not want to show weakness. Loki still cared for Thor, stupidly so, but he could not bring himself to admit it. Not when so many had hurt him in the past. However, Thor approached him again and knelt down, before sitting down next to him.

“What I would not give to turn back the time, to long before it all started and make amends. I know I have a hand in your madness; I should have been a more attentive brother,” Thor said.

Silence again. Loki merely stared at the ground, unable to speak.

“There are little things I miss; confiding in you as I could not with anyone else, having you to watch my back as I would yours…the humour, the tricks. Complain as I may, I enjoyed them no less,” Thor said.

What did Thor want? He had nothing to offer.

“I will return, brother,” Thor said after a while, standing up and leaving.

Loki then realised that he had been crying; where his words had failed him, Thor had seen his emotions. The cursed, damned emotions that revealed his weakness. His cell changed around him as he summoned another illusion and there, in a beautiful Asgardian dress, stood Darcy. She rushed to him then and knelt down, fussing over him and wiping away his tears. It turned crackly before it disappeared completely, leaving him slumped inside a lifeless cell.

 


	2. Trapped with mischief

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy's confused...where is she? 
> 
> Wherever she was, there was a hot guy sleeping in a bed.
> 
> Though...where's the door? 
> 
> Uh oh.

_One week later…_

Darcy was in London now, helping Jane out. It was the summer between her third and final year of university, so while she wasn’t in need of anymore credits, she also didn’t need to think too much about a job just yet. That and her friend could do with more human company; were all scientists so workaholic? Not that Jane was doing a lot of science these days.

She had seen Jane snag a very hot alien boyfriend and, truth be told, she was a little bit jealous. The Destroyer thing had been terrifying, yet a little exciting too. She didn’t want anymore trouble here, but she _did_ want some other form of action. Alien needs her help in finding his lost helmet? She’s there! Okay, so maybe she was being shallow; trying to find an alien boyfriend, a hot one at that, probably wasn’t the greatest thing to search for.

And it wasn’t like there weren’t any dicks in outer space either: enter Loki, infamous God of Mischief.

She knew all about Norse Mythology, having read many tales as a child and engaged in plenty of online meta about various characters and stories. Most people could agree that mythology was completely fucked up. Darcy knew the myths weren’t all on point, but it seemed like Loki was, at least, holding up to his end of the chaotic stream. Yet she wondered how much of the myths was in the real Loki; for as much of a villain as he was painted by the Aesir, he was also not really good or evil.

Darcy’s attention shot to Jane’s little device when it started making noises and she did all she could to figure out what it was doing, but to no avail. Jane wasn’t around and she couldn’t be bothered to go searching for her. So she sent her a text, a quick one because she was in need of going to the ladies’ room.

However, on her way there she felt her body lurch and suddenly, she was no longer outside Jane’s bathroom. Instead, she stood in a brighter place. Two white walls, two walls mostly covered in some sort of semi-transparent golden glitter. Then she noticed the furniture, but before she could take stock of it all, she noticed the dark-haired man lying on a rather lavish bed, asleep.

He was wearing something like a tunic, a green tunic top and black leather trousers. His hair was long and neither well-groomed nor particularly messy. Darcy stepped closer to him and wondered who he was, because he was _hot_. She tore her eyes away from him long enough to take in more of her surroundings.

Then she noticed that there were no doors, or nothing that looked like a door. Darcy walked up to the golden thing and slowly reached out to touch it. It was tingly, but also glass-like. She felt her way around it, then the walls, walking around the bed to finish the circuit, but nothing. Taking a proper look outside the golden glass thing, she noticed a couple of other people in little cuboids like this one, though smaller.

Wait…

Darcy turned around, staring at the still-sleeping man; was she in a prison cell???! It was the only room she could think of that would need no door (no obvious one, anyway; there had to be a way to feed them or whatever). That meant that the man on the bed sleeping was some sort of criminal. She was still trying to get her head around the fact that she was no longer in Jane’s house, now she had to come to terms with being locked up with someone potentially dangerous?

The saying was always why were the hot ones always gay, well her thoughts now were why was it the hot ones that were dangerous? Life wasn’t fair.

There she goes again, thinking in a shallow manner. Though maybe it wasn’t so much her brain doing the thinking here, so much as other parts instead…it had been quite a while for her.

Urgh.

Then the lights started flickering, or something did because she couldn’t see where the light was actually coming from, and a crackle shot around the room, a spark or electricity or something. It slowly turned green before it twisted into black, making it darker in the cell. The golden windows slowly turned black and opaque, yet she could still sort of see with some green sparks that flew around.

What was going on? Was this the criminal’s doing? She looked over at him and saw that he was twitching in his sleep. Then she saw the green tendrils heading towards her and the next thing she knew, she’d pulled out her taser and, aiming at the sleeping man, she fired in a panic.

The darkness and green turned into lightning and vanished completely in seconds. She opened her eyes and saw that the man was on the floor, on his stomach. Though not for long as he was lifting himself on his hands, before managing to stand up almost gracefully, except he stumbled a little. His hair was a little less refined now and he turned to her then, his green eyes rather striking.

He narrowed his eyes then, but not in anger; there was confusion there. Darcy hadn’t realised that she had been backing up until she felt her butt hit the wall behind her. The man worked the cricks in his joints before slowly walking towards her, still confused.

“What are you doing here? I did not conjure you…” He murmured.

Oh, his voice was like silk and chocolate, which was a silly thought because it sounded like a cheesy line in a bad novel, but if chocolate had a voice…it was this guy’s. This was bad. This was very bad.

Wait.

“Why would you conjure me? I just…appeared here,” Darcy responded.

The man frowned and made a sweeping motion, cutting horizontally in front of him, but while she did flinch, nothing actually happened.

“You are not an illusion…you just appeared here?” He asked.

Now it was her turn to frown. “Why would I be an illusion?” She asked.

“Who are you?” She asked, after he said nothing.

He raised an eyebrow. “You do not recognise me?” He asked.

“Nope,” she said.

“My name is Loki…I know you are Darcy Lewis, we met a number of years ago,” he said.

Her blood ran cold then; Loki? As in, Thor’s brother Loki? Wait, she never met him. She would remember someone as striking as him.

“You must be mistaken, I’ve never seen you before. The Destroyer doesn’t really count,” Darcy said.

“No, we met before that. Sometime after your school graduation,” Loki said.

Darcy narrowed her eyes in thought; she couldn’t remember meeting him, although…

“There was one time I was drunk out of my mind; maybe I met you then, but I don’t remember a single thing from that night,” Darcy said. “That’s the only time it could have been.”

“You did not seem inebriated.”

“Well, maybe I get so drunk that I make a whole lot of sense sometimes,” Darcy said, shrugging.

Then she remembered.

“Anyway, you stay away from me; you’re evil and I don’t care if we met in the past, you could have been my best friend and I still wouldn’t want anything to do with you,” Darcy said. “Then again, I would think my best friend would have more sense…I’m digressing, just stay away!”

And he did. Loki turned around and walked back to his bed, sitting down on it. She edged down the wall and sat down. She sorted out her taser and kept it out. It didn’t seem to do much to him, but he had felt it enough to wake up. Which reminded her…

“What was all that darkness shit? You were sleeping and this darkness and green crackly light filled the room, it looked like it was about to attack me so I…well, I shot you. Honestly, I’m sorry. Just because you’re a criminal doesn’t mean I want to get violent with you,” Darcy said.

She watched as Loki seemed to pause, to think about his answer. He licked his lips and she turned her eyes away, otherwise she feared she would stare too long.

“A nightmare; I suppose it started manifesting into the real world,” Loki murmured. He was silent for a moment before looking at her. “You might have saved my life.”

Darcy frowned. “What? How?” She asked.

“I thought I was safe in here from a certain mad titan who will want to make me suffer, however, he had just been about to reach me when you jolted me awake,” Loki said.

He stood up then and walked towards her, though stopped, possibly because he saw her shrinking away from him. She wasn’t usually this much of a coward, but she was trapped inside a prison cell with Loki, someone so very dangerous that it took six superheroes, including Thor, to subdue him.

“I promise, I will not harm you,” Loki murmured.

He stepped closer until he was kneeling right in front of her. The taser was still in her hands, shaking a little, but her finger didn’t pull the trigger. His hands closed around hers and she stared up at him. Green light enveloped her hands and her taser before fading away and she stared at it for a few moments before looking up. He pulled them towards him, the point of the weapon now at his heart (if it was in the same place as human hearts, of course).

“I have imbued your weapon with enough force to knock any Asgardian down for five minutes; if you want to pull the trigger, do it. If you feel like you are in danger, protect yourself,” Loki said, looking completely serious. “However, I wish only to thank you the proper way.”

He peeled her hand from her taser and kissed her knuckles, much the way Fandral had before he left that time two years ago. Then Loki walked back over to the bed and sat down. She still sat there, in shock, but then she snapped back into reality when she remembered something particularly awkward. She snapped her legs shut and dropped the taser, hands squeezing the skin on her thighs. She looked around, but found no toilet whatsoever.

“How do you go to the bathroom? Wait…you probably don’t have as weak a bladder as us humans,” Darcy muttered, anxiously. She grimaced.

Green light sparked around Loki again, catching her attention and then…

Suddenly everything was okay. Her eyes shot to Loki and he was smirking.

“Magic can do much,” Loki said.

“Thanks…” Darcy said.

She fell silent for a bit, unsure what else to say; she couldn’t understand why he was being so…nice? At least, this seemed kind to her, helping her; showing gratitude, improving her weapon that could now hurt him. It was surreal. They stared at each other, sizing the other up, not that she knew what was going through his mind.

“So…how often do the guards patrol? Bring food? Am I a goner?” Darcy asked. “I mean, you can probably go without food and water for a long time…is it weekly food and water deal? Holy shit, I can’t last that long!”

Loki stood up again walked to a small desk he had, his gait rather elegant and there was something sexy about it. She supposed if she was doomed, she didn’t have to feel bad about ogling a…

No.

Just no.

He _killed_ people.

Darcy dropped her face into her hands; she was a mess. These had to be some form of intrusive thoughts, terrible thoughts entering her mind, ones so inappropriate. _Stay calm, Darcy. This is just a very bad situation._

She jumped when she felt a hand on her shoulder and looked over to see it was Loki, knelt down next to her with some sort of crystalline…box…with something inside it. He took the lid off and waved his hand over it, then it had a little steam twisting upwards to show that it was now warm. Was this an Asgardian form of _Tupperware_? Boy, Asgard did things big or didn’t do them at all, huh?

Darcy looked at Loki, his face sincere.

“Why? Why are you being so nice? I don’t get it, you’re―”

“A murderer, I know. Dear girl, once upon a time you mended my heart, and just recently you stopped a very unpleasant being from torturing me…not to mention the little company I ever receive,” Loki murmured.

This was not what she expected when she thought of Loki, the Destroyer-sending supervillain.

She was still wondering whether this was all a dream.

 


End file.
